As the quality of our life improves in recent years, outdoor activities (such as mountain climbing) become increasingly more popular, and users usually carry a folding knife with them for the purpose of cutting or hacking objects such as tree branches and thorns in the outdoor activities. A general folding knife available in the market comprises a blade and a handle, wherein the blade is pivotally coupled to the handle and turnable into the handle or out from the handle. If a user turns the blade out from the handle in order to use the folding knife for cutting or slashing objects and the user applies an improper force or applies a force in a deviated direction, the force may be exerted onto the blade to turn the blade towards the handle automatically and cut the user's hand accidentally. Obviously, such application requires improvements.
In view of the foregoing drawback of the prior art, some manufacturers improved the conventional folding knife by installing an elastic stop plate inside the handle and attempted to fix the blade whenever the folding knife is unfolded completely. When the blade is turned and folded into the handle, the elastic stop plate elastically abuts against a side of the blade. After the user turns the blade out from the handle, an end (which is the free end) of the elastic stop plate is moved to an end (which is the end away from the tip of the knife) proximate to the blade by the elastic displacement to abut the end of the blade. Since one end of the blade is abutted by the elastic stop plate, therefore the elastic stop plate can fix the blade in a slightly stable fashion, so that the blade will not be turned and folded into the handle easily. On the other hand, after the user has finished using the folding knife and wants to fold the blade into the handle, the user needs to apply a force to the elastic stop plate first, such that an end of the elastic stop plate is moved away from the position of abutting the blade, so as to facilitate folding and storing the blade. However, if the user turns the blade out from the handle and uses the folding knife for the cutting and hacking operations, an excessive force or a bad cutting angle may shift the elastic stop plate from the position of abutting the blade by vibrations or other forces. Now, the blade may turn towards the handle suddenly or cut the user's hand. Such application is quite dangerous and may injure the users.
To overcome the aforementioned problem, some manufacturers further improved the structure of the conventional folding knife and attempted to enhance the stability of the elastic stop plate. With reference to FIG. 1 for an improved folding knife 1, the folding knife 1 comprises a blade 10, a handle 11 and a turning element 12, wherein the handle 11 includes a first plate 110, a second plate 111 and a third plate 112. A pivot 13 is passed through the third plate 112, the second plate 111, the blade 10 and the first plate 110 sequentially, such that the plates 110, 111, 112 can be combined into the handle 11, and the blade 10 can be pivotally coupled to the handle 11. The second plate 111 includes an elastic stop plate 111a extended from the second plate 111, and the elastic stop plate 111a is bent and extended in a direction towards the first plate 110. When the blade 10 is folded into the handle 11, the elastic stop plate 111a can abut against a side (which is the bottom side as shown in the figure) of the blade 10. The third plate 112 has a containing slot 112a formed thereon, and a protruding pillar 112b is installed onto the containing slot 112a. The turning element 12 is contained in the containing slot 112a and turnable along the pivot 13, and a turning portion 121 of the turning element 12 is extended beyond the handle 11 and provided for pressing by a user. A position restoring spring 14 is installed around the protruding pillar 112b, and an end of the position restoring spring 14 is abutted against a protrusion 120 of the turning element 12 to push the protrusion 120. After the blade 10 is turned completely out from the handle 11, the position restoring spring 14 pushes the protrusion 120 to a position corresponding to the elastic stop plate 111a, such that the protrusion 120 can press against a side (which is the bottom side) of the elastic stop plate 111a, and the elastic stop plate 111a can be fixed and abutted against an end of the blade 10 to prevent the blade 10 from folding automatically.
In the foregoing improved folding knife 1, the stability of the elastic stop plate 111a can be improved, but when the user wants to fold the blade 10 into the handle 11, the user has to keep pressing the turning element 12 to rotate the turning element 12 clockwise in order to resist the elastic force of the position restoring spring 14, such that after the protrusion 120 is separated from the position of abutting the elastic stop plate 111a, a force can be applied to the elastic stop plate 111a to separate from the position of abutting an end of the blade 10 to facilitate folding the blade 10. However, the complicated operation as described above is inconvenient to users. In other words, users have to press the turning element 12 and the elastic stop plate 111a simultaneously before the blade 10 can be turned and folded into the handle 11. When a user operates three components (which are the turning element 12, the elastic stop plate 111a, and the blade 10) simultaneously, the user's hand may be cut accidentally or the folding knife may be even dropped, causing damages to the blade or hurting people around. Such application is quite dangerous.
In summation, regardless of the traditional folding knife or the improved folding knife, the operation is inconvenient and the usage is relatively dangerous, and thus users cannot use the folding knife at ease. Obviously, the application is not good or safe. Therefore, it is an important subject of the present invention to overcome the shortcomings of the conventional folding knife by providing a folding knife capable of preventing the blade from folding accidentally and allowing users to fold the blade easily, so as to overcome the issues of safety and inconvenience.